US Gov't Tells Developing Nations That Patents & High Prices Are Good For The Health Of Their Citizens

from the oh-really-now? dept

There have been plenty of studies showing how -- especially in developing nations -- patents for pharmaceuticals serve to keep important drugs (which are cheap to manufacture) out of reach of the patients who need them most. In large part, because of this, various world bodies have accepted the idea that nations may decide to ignore patents in the interest of public health and safety. And that appears to work and be helpful. For example, we were just discussing how such generic copies were helpful in massively reducing the price of key drugs in India. And, no, this did not mean that the original manufacturer was unable to profit. This was on a drug where the company (Bayer) had made many times over its investment around the globe already, yet was still pricing the drug at over $5,000, while the generics were coming in at between $100 and $200.

There have been so many studies on this that you'd have to be either ignorant or deceitful to suggest that such a plan was a problem.

So I'm trying to figure out which adjective should apply to the USPTO, who recently gave a talk to a WIPO committee on the issue of patents and health, in which they argued that such efforts actually did more harm than good, and the way to keep people safe in developing countries was to increase patent protection:
There is no easy solution to these problems. Reducing patent protection is not likely to solve these thorny issues.... To the contrary, the lack of effective patent protection can be one of the many factors which prevent the appropriate medicines from reaching the neediest patients in DC and LDCs. Weakening the patent rights granted to pharmaceutical researchers and manufacturers in certain markets not only removes or reduces the incentive to develop new medicines, but also reduces the incentives for innovative medicine developers to invest in those countries and harness their innovation to solving the public health challenges that disproportionately affect developing countries, and are not being solved in other ways.
This statement is hogwash. First of all, there's nothing stopping these companies from profiting greatly in the developed world with these drugs, as they do already. And the idea that they wouldn't, say, invest in India if they could only get $100 per drug rather than $5,000... well, who cares? Considering how much more of these drugs they'd sell at those lower prices, there would still be plenty of profit to go around. Apparently, the folks at the USPTO have never learned a thing about price elasticity. Second, if a big pharma is too stupid to know how to provide drugs (which are relatively cheap to manufacture) at a reasonable cost for a profit, it seems pretty freaking natural that other companies are willing to step in and offer generics. So, really, why should anyone care if, say, Bayer decides to ignore India because it wants $5,000 for pills that others are willing to sell at $120? We're talking about the health and safety of the public, not Bayer.
Weakening patent protection for innovative medicines is not a productive approach to improving availability of health care, because many other factors other than patents more directly affect the availability of medicines.

The proof of the weakness of that argument is that although most medicines on the World Health Organization’s List of Essential Medicines are not protected by patents, their availability in many markets is still limited. This is particularly true in DC/LDCs. Many other factors affect the availability of all medicines, patented or not.
This is a nice bit of sleight of hand, confusing correlation with causation. No one says that a lack of patents means that such drugs are automatically made available in every market. But it takes a truly demented view of the world to take that fact and assume that such drugs would be more widely available if only those non-patented drugs were in fact covered by patent.

From there, the USPTO proposed a study to show how wonderful patents are in getting drugs to poor countries, to "restore balance to the discussion by evaluating the role of patent protection in providing incentives for research and development...." Funny how they were just talking about drugs that were off-patent not being available... but now they ignore that and it's all about new drug development. But, more seriously, I find it absolutely hilarious that the USPTO wants to talk about "restoring balance." This is an organization that has always pushed for "more patents" at pretty much any cost. The whole software industry is facing a massive crisis of gridlocked development over bogus patents. If we're going to start "restoring balance" to the patent system, let's start at home.

This kind of stuff is really sickening, because it's basically the USPTO saying that poor people around the globe should suffer and die if helping them doesn't produce enough profits for big pharmaceutical conglomerates. I don't know how people taking that position can sleep at night.
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Filed Under: developing nations, generic drugs, pharmaceutical patents, uspto, who, wipo
Companies: bayer


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  • icon
    :Lobo Santo (profile), 25 May 2012 @ 10:32am

    Evil Bastards!

    I suspect the makers of hogwash will be politely asking you to stop unfavorably comparing their product to the excrement spoken by these whores...

    Apparently, if little lies don't get the job done then one needs to switch to much bigger lies.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      gorehound (profile), 25 May 2012 @ 10:46am

      Re: Evil Bastards!

      The day is coming when the scum will be answering for their BS.We may all live long enough to see a collapse of this system.The people are no longer Represented but the Rich Assholes are.
      I Hate Our Government !!! You are a Cancer.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 25 May 2012 @ 12:14pm

      Whores?

      Maybe they should invest more funds to aids research.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 May 2012 @ 10:35am

    I don't know how people taking that position can sleep well at night.

    A big ass pile of money is surprisingly comfy.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Designerfx (profile), 25 May 2012 @ 10:44am

    its AT&T!

    Funny how this makes me immediately think of AT&T's "competition is bad for you" that they said before. Can't even say that it's any different, considering we have legacy players and legacy businesses vs societal gain and more profits.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Rekrul, 25 May 2012 @ 10:45am

    I don't know how people taking that position can sleep well at night.

    Easy, they take Ambien.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      The eejit (profile), 25 May 2012 @ 2:17pm

      Re:

      Genericised, fo course. Can't have the riff-raff in Pakistan or Somalia pirating those dastardly drugs now!

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Nathan F (profile), 25 May 2012 @ 10:46am

    *sigh* Today is just chock full of "WTF! *facepalm* moments. TV Stations suing a company for copyright infringement for an automated fast forward button and their inability to adapt to the changing market. Lawmakers insisting that Google broke the law by 'wiretapping' an open wifi link, even though the relevant federal agency already said they weren't breaking the law. Microsoft filing DMCA take downs with their competitor but leaving the links up on their own search engine..

    The full moon was last weekend.. what in the world is going on?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      TtfnJohn (profile), 25 May 2012 @ 6:02pm

      Re:

      It's a delayed effect of the full moon.

      And that the only way for MS to beat Google is to DCMA them to death.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 May 2012 @ 10:58am

    Uh-huh, sure. And up is the new down.

    Let's see if the politics of the "developing nations"* are as totally corrupt as the politics of the USof$ and the people of the "developing nations"* are as mentally controlled as the people of the USof$.

    Do any of you actually think that these people give a flying fuck about anything other than money?

    *Given whom we’re talking about, we know immediately that "developing nations" can only mean "financially developing nations".

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Chuck Norris' Enemy (deceased) (profile), 25 May 2012 @ 11:01am

    Could you expect anything else?

    Of course, the USPTO thinks patents are great and that we need moar patentz. Anything to justify the existence and expansion of their bureaucracy.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 May 2012 @ 11:03am

    Again the US is referred to as if it was a legitimate country and not just an evil and violent money-robbing conspiracy that thinks it has the rest of the world by the balls because it has the most nukes.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      :Lobo Santo (profile), 25 May 2012 @ 11:11am

      Re: Master Blaster

      States' authority is derived from violence.

      Legitimacy is derived from recognition of other States.

      Recognition from a State is granted when a tentative State displays sufficient military/economic/diplomatic (etc) power to possibly threaten said State.

      QED: The US is a "Legitimate" country.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 May 2012 @ 11:09am

    they sleep very well, next to a drawer full of tablets that they get for free.

    so who wrote this horse shit paper and who read it out? two different people, i'll bet!

    how any company that makes products to keep people alive, fight illness or to improve peoples health can have such scant regard for those same people, without whom the companies wouldn't exist, is beyond me

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 25 May 2012 @ 1:23pm

      Re:

      To be fair, the researchers working on these problems almost certainly do care. It's the bureaucrats running the companies who make most of the money and couldn't care less. Researchers can't access the equipment, grants, and field trials they need without partnering with a larger entity, which is usually a university department in the pocket of a pharma company or a pharma company itself or a research hospital (of which there are relatively few).

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 May 2012 @ 11:18am

    trying to figure out how being extremely sick and unable to afford the medicine needed to save my life, can actually be good for me. explain? please? anyone?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      :Lobo Santo (profile), 25 May 2012 @ 11:23am

      Re: Ginger Games

      Well, you might die--thereby freeing up food, bed space, housing, jobs and precious precious oxygen for those who outlive you.

      And after that, you'll have nothing to worry about.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        squirrel (profile), 25 May 2012 @ 3:19pm

        Re: Re: Ginger Games

        ``You wish to be anonymous?''

        ``I wish to be left alone,'' said Scrooge. ``Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don't make merry myself at Christmas and I can't afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned: they cost enough: and those who are badly off must go there.''

        ``Many can't go there; and many would rather die.''

        ``If they would rather die,'' said Scrooge, ``they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population. Besides -- excuse me -- I don't know that.''

        ``But you might know it,'' observed the gentleman.

        ``It's not my business,'' Scrooge returned. ``It's enough for a man to understand his own business, and not to interfere with other people's. Mine occupies me constantly. Good afternoon, gentlemen!''

        Seeing clearly that it would be useless to pursue their point, the gentlemen withdrew. Scrooge resumed his labours with an improved opinion of himself, and in a more facetious temper than was usual with him.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 25 May 2012 @ 11:38am

      Re:

      Diseases don't usually last to long in a corpse, so they are curing you for free.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 25 May 2012 @ 12:55pm

      Re:

      I think (which is probably making this harder) that their reasoning would be that by allowing generic drugs into the market, there would be less oversight and higher potential for the generic company to cut the drug with some cheaper, less safe filler or less of the active ingredients. That would lead to the potential of improper dosages and/or other side effects that may cause complications.

      But the way I look at it, I'd rather pay the $10 I could barely afford for a 50% of improvement, rather then the unaffordable $500 which would lead to a 0% improvement.


      This also sort of reminds me of that old joke about the guy that went into a store and sees pencils for $1 millon each. He says to the storekeeper, "You'll never sell many of those", to which the storekeeper replies "I only need to sell 1."

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 25 May 2012 @ 1:00pm

        Re: Re:

        I meant spend $10 for a 50% chance of improvement, rather then the unaffordable $500 which would leave me with a relative 0% chance of improvement, since I couldn't afford to buy it.

        The 50% was a number pulled out of my ass to represent a 50/50 chance I'd get a fake (placebo) or inefficient drug due to lack of regulation/oversight, which is what I think the big drug companies are trying to claim will happen. Also assuming that the "real" drug has a 100% chance of recovery.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 May 2012 @ 11:22am

    I've been disgusted with America since I can remember. I'm 24 and my whole life shits been fucked up.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 May 2012 @ 11:51am

    "US Gov't Tells Developing Nations That Patents & High Prices Are Good For The Health Of Their Citizens"

    Funny, I remember a time when medical doctors used to recommend cigarettes to people. Just because they said or believed it, doesn't make it any more true.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Bengie, 25 May 2012 @ 12:02pm

    lawl....cry

    Yep, artificially higher prices, with reduced innovation and competition, is g-g-g-g-great! for a developing nation.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 25 May 2012 @ 12:43pm

      Re: lawl....cry

      It is great for them! It helps evolve their nation into becoming a Deteriorating Nation, like the USA!

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 May 2012 @ 12:15pm

    Granted monopolies are the signature of a paternalistic state to say the least.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Jack Furlong (profile), 25 May 2012 @ 12:19pm

    Saw a comment the other day that pretty much sums up my opinion: "Where's the reset button on the USA?"

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Digitari, 25 May 2012 @ 12:49pm

    Re:

    I worked at a Pharmaceutical Company, we did IN HOUSE R&D the cost of production of 1000 (one thousand) tablets was......

    ...wait for it.........


    00.01, yes that is a PENNY, one onehundrendth of a US Dollar, Granted that was 7 years ago so maybe it has inflated to 00.02$ now with inflation and all, I was making 18.00$ running the press. the "small" company I worked for only made 6 million $ Profit a year.

    Reminder we did R&D in house and that WAS figured into cost of production.

    (and yes, I did quit my job,due to insomnia)

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 25 May 2012 @ 1:52pm

      Re: Re:

      With patents and enforcement that $6 million could have EASILY been quadrupled. You obviously weren't doing it right.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    DUMBASS POLITICIANS, 25 May 2012 @ 2:10pm

    30000 dollar gold toilet

    cant wait to have to take a dump and pay for my new toilet

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 May 2012 @ 2:49pm

    I think it's pretty clear the big western pharma companies are worried that local companies will not only undersell them in DCs but will also begin to export to more developed nations to serve the market of uninsured or underinsured. Unless they kill the compulsory licensing plans now, they'll have to fight that battle at the border and in full view of a public that has a lot more control over what happens to the companies themselves. It's easier to be evil far from home.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 May 2012 @ 3:26pm

    A UN body now becomes the fora to start insilting developing countries on their patent laws (or lack of)? - well, if these same countries just lie there and role over, then why not? There a few India's out there. Most of these developing countries will adapt yheir laws if they are paid to lobby their govts. We doubt the patents wars are bavl.erhaps more dangeros and not getting the attention of all s the fact that WIPO is inviting big food conglomerates to is premises with companies like monsanto preaching to them about food security. This now will be dsastrous for the developing countries - just like in the US, if they cnnot re-use their seeds because of the sui generis natur of rtection on these, then you willl what is happening in the UU happen in Africa, Asia and perhaps Latin America. Al under the rubrick of Food Security. Dooms day nears.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 May 2012 @ 3:33pm

    Wait what?

    Sad so see so many lies created in the name of greed.
    Find a niche, fill it, then work to improve those around you.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Mega1987 (profile), 25 May 2012 @ 5:05pm

    Patents and High price tag = good health?

    Yeah... it's true... For those people Who can ACTUALLY afford them in those nation.

    For those other people below a certain class level, especially the poor and the homeless, They're expected to die a slow but painful death by these pharmaceutical companies who only think of their own PROFIT than to SAVE lives...

    Just make sure you fools can stomach the fact that you just SENTENCE at least a HUNDRED, if not a THOUSAND man, woman and children to their deaths just to save a HANDFUL, I repeat, a HANDFUL in those developing countries.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 May 2012 @ 9:23pm

    "We're talking about the health and safety of the public, not Bayer. "

    Who cares about the health and safety of the public, pharmaceutical profits are all that matter.

    and no one responsible for this in the U.S. was punished.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    John Thacker, 25 May 2012 @ 10:15pm

    The claims about generics being unsafe are hogwash. But statements like this, Mike:

    This was on a drug where the company (Bayer) had made many times over its investment around the globe already,


    also make it very clear that you either don't understand the argument that you're criticizing, or you're being dishonest.

    The vast majority of drug R&D fails. The vast majority of ideas and targets fail. Therefore, to have a drug industry at all, it simply must be the case that successful drugs pay not just for themselves, but for all the failures, so they must pay for themselves many times over.

    The drug industry does not make enormous profits. Not on the total amount of capital invested. (And no, complaining about marketing and advertising driving up price is generally silly as well; both of those things are supposed to make money, not cost it.)

    Of course the drug industry makes the argument about future drugs. That's the only reason argument in favor of patents.

    One reason why the drug companies concentrate on drugs that treat lifestyle diseases or simply diseases of the fairly well-off is that they know that those will be paid for. Drugs that affect diseases of developing countries they know people like you will advocate for reduced prices and reduce patent protection as soon as they are invented. Time consistency is a tricky concept.

    Either argument could be correct, but do realize, Mike, that if the argument about future drug production is correct, that you are the one condemning more people to die in the future because of wanting to save a smaller number of people today.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Data Zero (profile), 26 May 2012 @ 1:27am

    WTF?

    ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

    Patents and copyright laws ARE the GODDAMN reason why we have economic crysis.

    Just watch the movie called RIP: A Remix Manifesto. Youll see my point.

    Get started here:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdwN6rRU0Xk&feature=relmfu

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    any, 26 May 2012 @ 10:15am

    Bayer's motto: "science for a better life."

    Forget this old motto. Bayer's real motto should be "profits over people."

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 26 May 2012 @ 9:21pm

    Generic companies never innovate new treatments. They are, by design, incapable of bringing a new drug to market. Of course, once a patent expires, they are essential competitors in making a treatment widespread and affordable.

    The true innovators risk their companies, their employees, their investors and ultimately thousands of patients on the often thin hope that their drug will work. It is a horrible calculus, pricing today's treatment to develop tomorrow's cure. A long list of diseases flourish because no one can finance the development of the "orphan" drugs available to treat them.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    patent litigation, 8 Jun 2012 @ 12:03am

    denial or cynicism?

    It's hard to know whether the US's position and statements regarding patents spring from extreme denial or political, financially-motivated posturing. Most likely the answer is: a bit of both. Nonetheless, the profit motive and an exploitive mindset are probably the true culprits.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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